upstate economy

It is a David and Goliath battle according to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, in regards to her primary race against Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sept. 13. But Nixon said she would not be running if she could not win.

Central New York economic development boosters are hoping some positive trends from 2017 continue this year. One that CenterState CEO director Rob Simpson expects to hold course in 2018 is a change in something that’s plagued the area for years: brain drain.

"We have seen the latest census department estimates that the population 18-25 in central New York is actually growing at a more rapid rate than we’ve seen in recent memory," Simpson said.

New state laws are taking effect this month, including an increase in the minimum wage to $10.40 an hour in upstate. That’s a $0.70 increase from the end of 2017, and the wage will continue rising to $12.50 an hour by the end of 2020.

In addition, New York's new paid family leave program is now in effect. The program will allow workers to get paid a portion of their earnings while they take time off to tend to a new child or sick relative.

Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) says the program will keep people in work, which helps all New Yorkers.

President Donald Trump says upstate New York is not working and people are "getting very badly hurt." The president made the comments during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, suggesting people leave the area in search of better work elsewhere.

Trump's remarks were made while he was talking about Foxconn, a Chinese manufacturer, that he says will open a LCD flat-screen manufacturing plant in Wisconsin.

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie started a tour of upstate New York this week, with several stops in the Syracuse area.

Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, admits that while he was just an Assembly member, he didn’t make it much out of the confines of New York City. But since he’s taken a leadership position in state government as the most powerful member of the Assembly, he says it’s part of his job to take a broader view of the state.

A Syracuse agency that resettles refugees in Syracuse is beginning to deal with the fallout of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring refugees from entering the U.S. over the next four months.

The Utica Common Council has rejected a plan to build an asphalt plant on the north side of the city that many residents said threatened the community's progress.

At a standing-room only meeting at Utica city hall Wednesday night, the restless crowd waited for the committee meeting to end ahead of the full council session.

Impatience eventually boiled over after they got wind that the council was considering tabling the vote on the sale of the property. So, they stormed into the adjacent room where the council committee meeting was taking place.

Each year, ports on the Great Lakes dredge tons of material to keep shipping lanes open. But disposing of the spoils is a big problem. The Port of Toledo has a creative approach: farming.

The Port of Toledo dredges more sediment than any port on the Great Lakes – up to a million cubic yards every year. The idea of reusing sediment as soil for agriculture is new for the Great Lakes region and ideal for Lake Erie’s western basin.

Two high-tech companies in Syracuse are expanding with the help of New York state. Officials say it’s a reflection of a broader trend of economic development in upstate New York.

Terakeet, an internet marketing firm, and TCG Ascension Gaming, which runs an online marketplace for collectable trading cards, will add almost 250 employees to their rosters in coming months. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the numbers Thursday at the former Hotel Syracuse, which is reopening in a month as a Marriott property. All proof, the governor says, of a rebounding economy.

A quirk in the newly-enacted minimum wage increase could mean that in upstate New York by the early 2020s, fast food workers could be paid significantly more than other low wage jobs, like home health care workers or grocery store cashiers.

In the state budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature approved a multi-step plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 in New York City and its suburbs, and to $12.50 in the next five years for the rest of the state.

An upstate business group is seeking tax cuts for small businesses in the new year, and are opposing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to phase in a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour.

Unshackle Upstate’s Greg Biryla says while portions of the economy have improved somewhat, including the Albany and Buffalo regions, wide swaths of the Southern Tier, North Country, and Mohawk Valley continue to stagnate, and have lost jobs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the $500 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative award to central New York signals a turning of the tide for the area. The region's economic development plan was one of three big winners in Cuomo's competition to invest $1.5 billion in upstate. At a ceremony in Syracuse Sunday to commemorate the region's success, Cuomo said this investment in upstate rights a wrong.

Visitors to the Marriott Syracuse Downtown will be getting a glimpse of two worlds when they stay in one of the renovated rooms of what used to be the Hotel Syracuse.

The renovation of the rooms has been dictated in part by the funding of the $57 million project, according to hotel owner Ed Riley. There were historic preservation grants from the state and federal governments, that came with strict guidelines, meaning an entire floor of the hotel couldn’t be gutted and refitted with new totally new rooms.

As momentum for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour grows, opponents are trying to fight back. Small Business groups, farmers and others who employ low wage workers are organizing, and a fiscally conservative group is out with a study showing potential job losses.

There’s been an unusual focus on upstate New York among top state politicians from the downstate area in recent weeks.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a speech in Utica Thursday, says downstate lawmakers -- who numerically dominate the legislature -- have been unified in seeking aid and programs for New York City and Long Island. But he says upstate lawmakers are more balkanized and have been largely unsuccessful.

“There is no place called upstate,” said Cuomo, who said New Yorkers tend to identify with the city they leave nearest, like Syracuse or Buffalo or Rochester.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was in North Syracuse this week promoting a new bill that will help banks and investors loan more money to manufacturing businesses. The bill is meant to help keep manufacturers in the U.S. and New York state.

If you’re near Fort Drum around lunch time, you might notice a big pink food truck parked outside one of the base’s gates. The Military Moms Food truck sells the kinds of meals mom used to make – like sloppy joes and grilled cheeses. And it’s kind of famous. The truck appeared last year on The Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. Now, it’s back home serving comfort food to soldiers and fans.

New York state’s Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx native, has spent a portion of the summer touring upstate New York. The speaker replaced Sheldon Silver who was arrested on corruption charges earlier this year.

Heastie has been to Buffalo, Binghamton, Syracuse and Utica, the Thousand Islands and surrounding areas as part of a listening tour to familiarize himself with issues that might not be front and center in New York City.

“I’m used to cement,” said, Heastie who said says he’s “gained an appreciation” of the beauty of upstate regions.

There are no issues too small for Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is expected to become the next majority leader in the U.S. Senate. Schumer visited central New York Monday to put some heft behind the complaint one small town has against a big corporation.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was in Syracuse this week promoting legislation that will give employers a $5,000 tax credit for training workers in an apprenticeship program in high-demand industries. Gillibrand said as the number of high-skilled jobs increase, employers are struggling to fill them.

Shipping traffic on the St. Lawrence River has resumed after a luxury cruise ship stuck in the Eisenhower Lock in Massena was removed Saturday. The ship struck a wall as it attempted to maneuver into the lock Thursday night. Passengers on the MS St.

Central New York-based medical device manufacturer Welch Allyn is being acquired by Chicago-based Hill-Rom, also a medical device manufacturer, for $2.05 billion in cash and stock, the companies announced Wednesday morning.

Only five licenses will be awarded to companies that want to grow and sell medical marijuana. But each company can have up to four dispensaries. So, as many as 20 places where New York patients could get the drug.

Regulators in New York are moving ahead with a plan to prohibit hydrofracking within its borders. In the latest step, the state released its final environmental review last week. And New York’s unique stance on fracking could have wide-ranging effects.

Central New York’s business and economic development agency is starting a new chamber of commerce for minority-run companies.

According to CenterState CEO, the black and Latino communities in New York have $170 billion in buying power. That’s why, it says, it’s forming the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance, the only one in the region.

The news was announced at CenterState’s annual meeting. Edward Cuello will lead the new Upstate MEA. He says its mission will be to harness the minority community’s business and buying power.

The central New York operation of Lockheed Martin failed to secure the third round of a lucrative Navy supply contract.

The first two rounds of funding for a new electronic warfare system known by the acronym SEWIP were given to Lockheed Martin’s plant in suburban Syracuse in 2013 and 2014. Last summers award was worth $147 million.

But the Navy decided to the award the third, and largest, part of the contract to competitor Northrup Grumman. The Navy says the contract is worth skywards of $300 million with all the options.

Winners of New York state’s casino competition celebrated Thursday. A statewide gaming board this week recommended gaming licenses for three developers across upstate New York, including the proposal from the Rochester-based Wilmorite Corporation to build the Lago Casino and Resort in rural Seneca County.

While weather kept Gov. Andrew Cuomo from taking part in the Finger Lakes portion of a statewide casino victory lap, unions were out in full force in Seneca County. The potential for jobs for 55 out-of-work electricians has union rep Michael Davis happy.